Petermann Bus Drivers Announce Strike, No Transportation Until Further Notice

Posted on 04/15/2019

This evening, Lakota Local Schools was notified that its contracted bus provider, Petermann Transportation, could not reach an agreement in contract negotiations with its drivers. The bus drivers have chosen to strike, effective immediately.
This means that beginning the morning of Tuesday, April 16, busing will not be available to any students who utilize Lakota school transportation until the drivers return to work. This includes special education preschoolers and high-schoolers, as well as parochial school students.

We understand that this puts an enormous burden on our parents who normally rely on busing for their children. Through the duration of the strike:

Students will not be marked tardy or absent if they are unable to find transportation to school on the day(s) the strike is in force;

Please consider carpools to get students to and from school; and

Please be patient during drop-off and pick-up due the the increased number of vehicles.

"We are extremely disappointed with this outcome and the impact it will have on our students," said Lakota Chief Operations Officer Chris Passarge. "We have been reassured throughout this process that negotiations were ongoing and that we shouldn’t expect any sort of disruption to our transportation services. After receiving word that an agreement had been reached between Petermann and the bus drivers’ union leadership over the weekend, this is an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events."

Representatives from Petermann and the bus drivers’ union will continue to meet in an effort to reach an agreement and we will communicate to families as soon as we have more information about their progress.